Jurez gunmen kill 14 at teen's party, stunning a city accustomed to violence

CIUDAD JUÁREZ, MEXICO - Even by Juárez's macabre
standards, the mass killings Sunday left the city stunned and
numbed: 14 people, most of them students, massacred by gunmen who
burst into a teen's birthday party.

Like most killings here, the motives remain unclear: Most of
those interviewed said the teens had nothing to do with drugs.
What's troubling, though, is that the latest bloodbath marks a
watershed moment for this city, as the victims - all students who
grew up together - were not gathered at a bar, or rehab center, but
at a private home.

The state attorney general's office confirmed that at least 10
of the 14 dead were teens, ranging from 13 to 19. Two were adult
men, ages 35 and 42, and two were unidentified, but believed to be
teens. Fourteen others, all students and most of them teens, were
wounded and remained hospitalized Sunday night.

At a news conference, Juárez mayor Jose Reyes Ferriz
offered a reward of $76,000 for information leading to the
killers.

"We've never had a tragedy like this one," said Alfredo Quijano,
editor of Norte de Ciudad Juárez, which has been documenting
the rash of killings that began in January 2008. "We've had
students targeted, or young teens killed at rehab centers, bars,
but never a group of students gathered among friends. This is one
of the saddest days in Juárez."

It comes just weeks after President Felipe Calderon sent 2,000
U.S.-trained federal police officers to help restore order in this
city. They joined about 7,000 soldiers and other local and state
authorities to take on cartels in Juárez fighting to control
drug distribution routes leading to the United States, the world's
largest drug consumer market. Juárez is across the Rio
Grande from El Paso.

220 slain in January

For about two weeks, Calderon's latest strategy seemed to be
working as the killings fell dramatically. But it didn't last.
Since Thursday, at least 40 people had been killed, bringing the
total for January to more than 220 people. In 2009, more than 2,700
people were killed, making Juárez the deadliest city in the
Americas and one of the most violent in the world.

The crime scene covered the entire street of Villa del Portal,
near the corner of Portal de Salvarcar. In the neighborhood, the
sounds of neighbors wailing added to the morbid mood. All seem
shellshocked.

A 12 year-old boy who lost his father and awaited news of the
fate of his wounded brother, cuddled his puppy, expressionless. He
said he watched the massacre, from a closet. As he spoke, his
mother screamed at him, and told him, "Shut up, or they'll come
back and kill you." And she pleaded, "Please no names, no more
questions."

No one wanted their names used for fear of the hit men. Killers
have been known to return to take revenge or to wipe out witnesses
at either hospitals or cemeteries.

One woman said she heard the gunshots and ran from her bed and
stood next to one of the gunmen, pleading him to stop because her
son was inside. The gunman, she said, pointed his AK-47 to her face
and told her to "shut up, or I'll pump bullets into your mouth and
face."

When the shooting stopped, the mother ran inside and the first
body she saw was that of her son lying in a pool of blood. She held
him close until neighbors pulled her away. She, too, asked that her
name not be used.

"This is a bad nightmare," she said. "Please someone, wake me up
and bring back my son."

Others blamed the federal agents standing guard or federal
investigators who were trying to piece together what had happened
and why. They complained that the police and soldiers took too long
to arrive after the emergency calls were made. And when they
arrived, they wasted too much time before taking the victims to a
nearby hospital. Some parents, out of frustration, said they took
their children in their private vehicles.

As two investigators walked slowly, with notepads out, some of
the relatives hissed at them and shook their heads in disgust.

"Don't waste your time, or mine," shrugged one woman, who said
her name was Teresa. Like most, she spoke on the condition of
anonymity, explaining that she trusted no one in a country where
more than 95 percent of all crimes remain unsolved.

She answered a few questions and then buried her face in her
hands and burst into tears. Two of the victims were her nephews.
Both were baseball fanatics and had left their baseball gloves in
the front yard after playing a few hours before the massacre.

Final hours

The victims' final hours were replayed between family members,
as they looked for clues. The day they were killed, some studied or
ran errands for their parents or played football or softball. By
early evening, they washed up and prepared to celebrate their
friend's 19th birthday at a nearby home provided by a parent to
keep the teens out of town where they feared the killings are more
common.

Just past midnight, the armed men, from 12 to 24, rolled up in
seven vehicles and opened fire, first at a nearby small grocery
store, killing one man there, then two houses down at the tiny home
where the party was underway.

On Sunday, as dusk fell, families gathered outside their homes,
many in lawn chairs. Inside, friends, and relatives cleared living
rooms for the bodies that would arrive by hearse. As the moon rose,
the waiting continued.

Among those waiting were Hilda Soto Perez, 59, and Jaime Acevedo
Parras, 62, grandparents of two of the victims. "We did everything
right," said Soto. "We raised them to be good, educated people, to
dream of a better future. Where did we go wrong?"

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